problem adding new 750GB to Mac Pro

I have a brand new Mac Pro with an apple-installed 500GB disk. I've tried to add two different Seagate 750GB SATA II drives (one new out of box, one with NTFS). It seems that neither is recognized by the machine or, at least, neither appears in disk utilities. In each case (I've only tried them one at a time), the disk feels like it's spinning, so contact with the connector block is probably OK. I've tried them in two different bays with the same results. So what am I missing here?
TIA

This is probably a dumb question, but you did reboot after you installed it, didn't you? It may not be recognized on a "hot insert".

Second dumb question: Is there any need to reconfigure the boot firmware to recognize new drives?

Third dumb question: Is there any need to terminate a SATA bus? Perhaps it is terminated ahead of your new drive. Are there any configurable switches, jumpers, etc. that need configuring to ensure that your drive is logically on the bus?

Final dumb question: have you confirmed at least on paper that these drives are compatible with the Mac Pro?

mark_astro said:

I have a brand new Mac Pro with an apple-installed 500GB disk. I've tried to add two different Seagate 750GB SATA II drives (one new out of box, one with NTFS). It seems that neither is recognized by the machine or, at least, neither appears in disk utilities. In each case (I've only tried them one at a time), the disk feels like it's spinning, so contact with the connector block is probably OK. I've tried them in two different bays with the same results. So what am I missing here?
TIA

Click to expand...

Those HD's are compatible with your Mac Pro. Did you install the drives as per:

Installing drives in the Mac Pro is easier than installing drives in any other recent Mac. Each empty hard-drive bay includes a metal drive carrier. You simply attach the drive to the carrier with four screws and slide the carrier back into place. The drive connects directly to the motherboard, without messy data or power cables. (Just don’t try to slide them in and out when the Mac Pro is turned on! Although the drive bays and carriers look similar to those in Apple’s Xserve, the Mac Pro drives are not hot-swappable.)

Click to expand...

Shut down the computer and remove the side access panel.

The four hard drive bays are in a horizontal row below the power supply and optical drive bays. There is no need to mess around with cables, the drives can be just slid in and out.

Slide out a drive tray - empty if installing an additional drive, or the one containing the drive you wish to replace.

Fit the new drive(s) with the screws which are already in position.

Slide the drive bay back in until you feel it snap into position.

Restart your Mac and format the new drive with Disk Utility.

Click to expand...

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacPro_HardDrive_DIY.pdf

Those are the instructions I followed...

Yep, followed the manual instructions, put the disks in with power off, then restarted. When I opened disk utility, all I see on the left hand panel is the original boot disk the machine came with. Do I have to do anything else for the new disk to show up?

How about formatting them? I take it you are trying to add 2 extra internal HDs?

Ultimately, I am putting in three drives (2 x 750 and a 250), but for now, I'm just trying to get one working. I tried the second drive to see if the problem was with the first. Can I format the drive without seeing it in disk utility? Also, although the first drive is blank, the others I want to install are windows drives that I want to copy data from, so formatting is not an option for those.

If the drive doesn't show up in Disk Utility you can't format it. The Mac isn't seeing it. Just to test the theory that its unformatted nature may be the issue, can you try one of the others that is already formatted to see if it shows up?

If this succeeds, you have identified the problem. You can then get around it by using another computer to do an initial format on the drive. If this was the case, I am surprised - I have never bought a disk drive (and I have installed a few over the years) that wasn't pre formatted to some file system, usually FAT/FAT32, simply because it is a sort of lowest common denominator.

No, that's definitely not the problem -- two out of the three drives I tried were definitely formatted, functioning drives on my windows PC. Note that they are still functioning after returning them to that PC, as well! I called Apple tech support and was told "we don't support extra drives as long as the ones we shipped it with are working" -- hmm, is this Dell I'm talking to?

I've also run the hardware test app that came with the machine, which claims all is right with the world.

So tonight I have an appt at the local Apple store to see if the so-called "Genius Bar" can figure anything out. If they sleaze out with the "we don't support" line as well, I'm going to begin to wonder why I switched to macs...

You've made the right move. I am sure that they will be able to help. If nothing else, you can bring your machine in and have them upgrade it for you. It has to work. The Apple web site is positively rhapsodic about how much disk space you can load into a Mac Pro. Let us know how it goes.

Let me see a screenshot of the disk utility when you have them inserted. I have 4 hard drives in my Mac Pro. I just plugged them all in and formatted them in disk utility.

Yeah, SunsetRoadzter ... it's supposed to be that simple. Just tighten up the 4 screws, slide the HD into place and whammo! But why is mark astro's Mac Pro not showing the HD's in Disc Utility is such a wierd one!

I'm wondering if it's worth a try to put one of the drives back in the PC and format it as FAT32, then try it again in the Mac Pro.

FAT32 is a good format to use if you plan to use the HD's between Windows and your Mac as you will have read/write access as opposed to NTFS, which is read only.

You never know, astro, your Mac Pro may recognise and show the new HD if it's reformatted as FAT32 ...

the end (hopefully) of the tale

Well, I hauled this monster down to the genius bar at the the local apple store. Unlike the phone support bozos, these guys were very good and tore into the problem with no hesitation. Turns out, what I should have tried is moving the drive the machine came with to another slot, which would have demonstrated right off that the other slots were dead! So the thing is conclusively borked and is going back for an exchange.

One odd thing to consider. If this had been a "standard" configuration bought from the online store, they could have given me another one on the spot. Because I upgraded the disk to 500 GB when I configured it, it has to be mailed back (or repaired at the Apple store, which actually takes longer). Just a thought when ordering a new machine...

Good to know your Seagate HDs are fine then. Thanks for letting us know about this mark. Hope your Mac Pro doesn't take too long to return.

A logical solution to an illogical problem! Excellent. Sorry that you now have to wait mark_astro, but I am glad that you got to the root of it.